The greatest prophets of the world foresaw and foretold that at the end of the passing age of division and conflict there would be a divine intervention and judgment that would help to educate all human beings, bring wrongdoers to justice and straighten out human behavior significantly, so that a new paradigm and new world view can start to bring progress, advancement and improvement to the people in all the nations in the world.

One of the greatest prophets was of course Jesus of Nazareth or Mashiac ben Yosef . But Jesus is not revered as a prophet by Christianity, the largest religion in the world, because it was built upon man-made church canon that elevates Jesus to the status of “only begotten son of God” and even as “God Himself.” Therefore, the promised divine intervention and judgment must teach or remind humanity that while Jesus was more than a prophet and even more than a Mashiach (Messiah), and could even be considered the Avatar for the passing age, he was a servant of God, not God solely incarnate. For God is the Great Spirit-Parent of all of us, and is by any other name The Eternal Holy One.

Since the greatest number of people in the world are Christians or were raised Christian and are familiar with its Creed, this work tends to target that audience, but due to this work's treatment of the crucial universal teachings of Jesus, it is relevant to all people and to the adherents of all of the other major religions. After all, the most essential truth is ageless and universal and can be realized by all who can receive it from within, regardless of religion. Moreover, while this work is somewhat about religion as we know it, it is more about universal spiritual truths that religion should be built upon to serve its true purpose, and it calls for a reformation of religion to achieve that goal.

On the other hand, this work also calls for a reformation of government, so it is as much or more about economics and politics -- about what's wrong and how we may correct it. For the main problem is that the status quo and the traditional ways of determining our leadership have failed, and regardless of whether nations claim to have a "Democracy" or not, political power winds up in the hands of the wealthiest few who rule with the power of money.

That is all the more the case since the forces of greed and self-interest have found new ways to manipulate circumstances and fool people to gain power. People have increasingly found it difficult to discern the truth from that which is misleading, deceptive or false, That has increasingly been the case during the last four decades, and the situation is now so bad that it is very perilous for humanity and for the earth itself.

Deceivers are cunning, but they often succeed because they actually believe they are "right," and that they are even "doing God's will." That is why you must know that while there are many ways a Deceiver may choose to gain or maintain power, it often involves appealing to the people’s egotism and their pride and prejudices, and turning them against minority scapegoats who are labeled as "the problem."

Today we have blatant examples of that, which is why bigotry and hypocrisy and violence are rampant and increasing. And the situation is so grave that unless the great majority of the people learn the truth, we are in danger of falling further down the slippery slope into total Plutocracy, Theocracy, and Fascism. In fact, we have already fallen far in that direction and plutocratic and theocratic forces have taken control of many governments, especially the government of America.

However, truth will prevail, and it can and will set us free, empower us, take power away from the forces of greed and self-interest, and enable the humble and "meek" majority to inherit the earth and establish real Democracy with government that will actually be of, by, and for the people.

You see, we need real Democracy. But our governments have failed us because real and true Democracy does not yet exist. We do not yet have government of the people, by the people, or for the people. We have government that is controlled by Plutocrats and Theocrats who pull the strings, and thus our government does not promote the general welfare, nor does it use the common wealth for the common good. It serves the interests of the wealthiest few who think their wealth and religion entitles them to rule.

That is why this message is about how and why we, the people, need to and can establish real and true Democracy with government that is actually of, by, and for the people -- good government that represents and serves us all, free of plutocratic and theocratic imposition by self-righteous and self-important people.

​In fact, it is our right and duty to do so. For just as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams believed, and as Adams stated: "Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men. Therefore the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity and happiness require.”

Nevertheless, this message is also about the true meaning and purpose of religion, and the need for religious freedom and pluralism with a Jeffersonian "wall of separation between church and state."

​Even furthermore, to establish the spiritual authority by which this message was written, it is also about how and why this message could very well be the prophesied message of intercession and judgment promised in the texts of all the major religions of the world. For even though most of the religions of the world expect their own messianic figure, the truth is that the expected one is already here. He is the one chosen by God, the Great Spirit-Parent of us all, and he is sent to serve all nations and reveal the truth that the whole world needs. That is why the messenger who wrote this message was sent, because he serves the eternal, universal Spirit of truth according to real prophecies (as distinguished from symbolic prophecies and myths).

​​According to the prophets Isaiah and Jesus, the servant-messenger of God sends his work before him and is "hidden" as he and his work are rejected by his generation, and he suffers many things and has been stricken and afflicted. He avoids the limelight and seeks not to exalt himself, and he stresses that it is the message, not the messenger, that the world needs. He seeks only to deliver the message that will liberate and empower all humanity, for the truth shall set us free.

​​​PERMISSION IS GRANTED to copy any articles for personal study or to copy, paste and post them on another web site, or publish them, as long as you include the original URL address and credit the modern son of man, the principal messenger for the Spirit of truth who has written using the pen names of Joseph J. Adamson and J.J. Jeffers.

The story of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the most misunderstood stories about him. This article, therefore, reveals how the story developed over time to become what it is today for Christians, and it explains what the real resurrection of Jesus' spirit-soul was, as distinguished from the canonical myth of a physical resurrection of the material body of Jesus.

Since the days when the Christ Jesus walked the earth, some of his followers understood him more than others, and some were not able to understand him at all. Those who called him the Mashiach Yeshuah ben Joseph understood that he was a son of man in the Jewish tradition, but few if any of his followers understood that he was not merely a spiritually anointed son of man (or Christus), but also the world Avatar for the age he ushered in.

Today, few Christians understand that, because by the middle of the first century, not many decades after the death of Jesus, most Christians were led to believe in myths that had been created about him, and one of those myths was about why Jesus willingly sacrificed his life and martyred himself. That was partly to offer his soul for the iniquity of his people, because that is what Isaiah 53:10-11 says a Mashiach and a prophet does. However, in Jesus’ case, his sacrifice was mainly to set a perfect example and to culminate his teachings on forgiveness, love, tolerance, and pacifism.

Fortunately, good Christians understand that, more or less, and they understand that the core universal teachings of Jesus are around the prophecy that the humble and meek shall inherit the earth by abiding by the Golden Rule -- because as Hillel the Elder said, and as Jesus repeated, the Golden rule is the summation of the Torah.

Unfortunately, these days good Christians, being humble and meek, are drowned out by loud, proud and militant hypocrites who aggressively follow the ways and doctrines of patriarchs who have masqueraded as Christians but were not. For as history reveals, during the passing age they have wreaked havoc on earth seeking and fighting for wealth, power, and domain -- all in the name of "spreading the Word of God" and "saving souls."

Hypocrites have gotten away with it, and still get away with it, because Christianity as we know it is not what Jesus of Nazareth intended and it contains false doctrines and myths. And Jesus knew it would. He predicted it, which is why he said many hypocrites would now be claiming to do "many wonderful works in the name of the Lord," when they actually serve Mammon, not God.

In order to establish peace and harmony in the world, and in order to resolve the doctrinal conflicts between Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other religions, it is necessary to weed out or at least recognize the errors made by those who wrote the books, articles and letters (epistles) that are regarded as religious scriptures and were used to establish the canon and doctrines of organized religions.

Since Christianity is the largest religion in the world and has the most influence, this article addresses one of several Christian doctrines that are inaccurate. For while Jesus of Nazareth should be glorified for what he was --- a spiritually anointed son of man, a "sacrificial lamb" of God --- myths about him should be recognized for what they are, and one of those myths is about his "bodily resurrection."

The Story of a "Bodily" Material Resurrection

First of all, the Judaic Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) do not say anything about any son of man (or mashiach/messiah) being killed and then in three days rising up physically resurrected.

In fact, the book of Isaiah says that the son of man and Mashiach who fulfills the ultimate prophecies "goes to his grave," and there is no mention in Isaiah or any other book of the Torah and Tanakh (Old Testament) that says a son of man or Mashiach would rise up three days after he was killed, or be physically resurrected.

The only thing remotely similar is in Hosea 6:2, which states: "After two days will he revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight."

That's not talking of Jesus. However, it could apply to Jesus and to all servants of God, and that may have been why Jesus may have referred to the three days – and to a spiritual “resurrection” during which the spirit-soul ascends to heaven.

A further clue is in the book of Matthew which states that Jesus said “as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

That's a clue because it does not mean what most Christians have been led to believe, because if Jesus said that, he was referring to what is in the book of Jonas or Jonah in the first ten verses of the second chapter, which is an allegory about several basic things: a test of Jonah’s faith and his going to the depths of despair, confessing his “life of corruption” and remembering that those who “observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.” And when Jonah realized all that, Jonah was freed from “the belly of the great fish.”

The fish Jonah was referring to was not literally a fish, or a whale. The great fish is a symbol known to those who understand Hebrew symbolism, because the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Nun, a noun meaning fish. That is very significant in Judeo-Christian scripture, because the name Jesus or Yeshuah is a derivative of the name Joshua or Jehoshuah, "son of Nun." “Nun” was the minister to Moses, and the “father” of Joshua, the successor to Moses. And that is not merely Judeo-Christian symbolism. Nun means fish in Aramaic, Phoenician and Arabic. In many mythologies, Nun is the ethereal waters or ocean from which all life has come. And such knowledge makes much easier to interpret the scriptures of Judaism.

Such knowledge makes much easier to interpret the scriptures of Judaism, because Jonah was actually talking about the same “father” Jesus was, the “father” of Joshua and the “minister” to Moses, which was Nun, the waters in which the fish was born.

What Does “The Living God” Mean?

The idea of a “living God” was established by Moses in Deuteronomy 5:26, when he wrote that God had “spoke” to him from out of a “burning bush,” and out of a “cloud.”

That of course wasn't meant literally. It is a figure of speech, which is why God is referred to as "Light" and associated with a "cloud" in many of the Hebrew scriptures.

Joshua, the successor to Moses, also says the Lord spoke to him (in Joshua 3:7-10), but he doesn’t mention the circumstances. But afterward, “Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come and hear the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out [your enemies].”

That is perhaps why Samuel speaks of “the armies of the living God,” and it is why David, Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and Hosea also mentioned the “living God.”

Then, in one of the first seven canonical Christian texts written by Paul around 50 AD (CE), the letter to the Romans, in which he interpreted Hebrew scriptures, Paul wrote that even Gentiles (people who are not Jewish) shall be called “the children of the living God.”

The question is, was there and is there actually a “living” God in the sense that you and I live as human beings?

Fundamentalist Christians will tell you the answer is yes, because they have been led to believe that the body of Jesus of Nazareth was actually physically resurrected, that he somehow revived himself after being killed, and that he still exists in person in heaven and will come again in person from "out of the clouds."

However, as this article reveals, the “resurrection” of Jesus was a spiritual phenomena, not a physical one, and there will be no “second coming” of Jesus (as is explained in the article on The Second Coming Story.)

Therefore the answer is no, because God “lives” not because God is actually a person, but because God is the eternal, infinite and omnipresent Great Spirit-Parent, always with us, above us, around us, and within us.

After all, as Moses wrote, "God is not a man, nor a son of man." (Numbers 23:19) And as Isaiah wrote, only God is the Savior. In fact, in Isaiah 40:18, 40:25, 42:8, 44:24, 44:6-8, 45:5-6, 45:21-22, 46:5-9, and 48:11 it is written that no man or son of man should be likened or compared to God, that a Messiah is God’s servant, that we should not worship any idol or image of any man, nor consider any man or son of man alike with God. And Hosea 13:4, Deuteronomy 4:39, I Kings 8:60, I Samuel 2:2, Joel 2:27, Luke 1:47, and 1 Timothy 2:3-5 also make that very clear.

That’s why Jesus said things like "God is greater than I" (John 14:28) and “You have not heard God’s voice or seen God’s shape at any time.” (John 5:37) – because even though Jesus realized his oneness with God, as we all can, he knew and said he was not God, but God’s servant.

There was a very good reason why Jesus said we cannot hear God's voice or see God's shape, and why Jesus never said that God spoke to him. For God "sent" Jesus, just as he sent the modern son of man, by anointing him spiritually.

How Did Christians Get the Wrong Idea About the Living God?

We should consider how and why the story was established to claim that Jesus was bodily and physically resurrected, and that he is the living God, because for the first twenty or thirty years after Jesus was killed, the story and teachings of Jesus were communicated only orally, by word of mouth.

That is why it is important to learn how and why the story was established to claim Jesus was bodily and physically resurrected, because the story evolved and was embellished during most of the first century.

For the first twenty or thirty years after Jesus was killed that story and the teachings of Jesus were told only orally, by word of mouth. There is not record of anything being written about Jesus for about two decades after he was killed, so it is probably that during that time the story tellers, like all story tellers, took liberties. In fact, between the time Jesus died and 43 years later, when the first of the four official gospels was written, the story of the resurrection have already evolved and had been enhanced quite a bit.

There is still some debate among scholars, historians and theologians about the absolute dates of any of the books in the New Testament of the Christian canon and Bible as we know it. However, most mainstream scholars agree that Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians was the first, and being the first Christian writer to produce his work, Paul was the first to write about the resurrection story.

As you can see in an article on A Chronological New Testament by a distinguished member of The Jesus Seminar, Marcus Borg, most mainstream biblical scholars agree that between 50 and 60 CE (AD), between 20 and 30 years after Jesus died, Paul wrote his first seven letters, now called epistles, the first seven of which were 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, Philemon, Phillipians, 2 Corinthians and Romans.

What is significant regarding Paul's story of the resurrection is that he wrote in his very first letter what he believed, that God "raised Jesus from the dead." He wrote: "We believe that Jesus died and rose again..." "Jesus was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and he appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time,...then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me (Paul)..." And "... if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain."

So it was Paul who first wrote that God raised Jesus from the dead, and it is from Paul’s writings that the idea that the most important Christian belief must be that Jesus rose from the dead as a physically revived corporeal person. But is that what Paul meant?

Is there actual reason to believe that Paul was talking about the physical body of Jesus being resurrected and appearing? He may very well have been talking about the fact that the human spirit-soul survives and transcends the human body, and is spiritually resurrected. And Paul may have been talking about the ghost of Jesus appearing to his loved ones.

But, whether Paul meant that and was talking about visitations of the ghost of Jesus, or whether he meant a physical resurrection, the story developed in later Christian writings as if it were the latter, as you will see.

The point of this article is that if, like some of the later gospel writers, Paul was talking about a physical resurrection of Jesus, rather than a spiritual resurrection of the soul leaving the body and becoming a ghost, Paul was wrong about that. And, as is discussed in the article About Christianity, Paul was wrong about several things. (For example, Paul was also wrong about the "second coming of Jesus" and the "end of the world," events Paul claimed were imminent, which is why he thought he had to prepare people for it right then.)

Paul set the tone for Christianity, including emphasis on the doctrine of preeminence and superiority, celibacy, the resurrection, and the theory of salvation (which was also contrary to Jewish traditional belief). Paul essentially declared that faith in the Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior made the Torah unnecessary, and depicted the world outside the Christian Church as under judgment by God.

It was at least twenty years after Paul wrote his first seven epistles that any other Christian writer produced written texts. Many modern biblical scholars point out that it was only then that one or more members of one group of Jesus' followers wrote the first draft of a book called the Gospel of Q, which, along with the writings of Paul, is considered the source document for all the gospels to follow. There is much disagreement about the source and nature of the Gospel of Q, but all scholars knowledgeable about it agree that it did not mention any resurrection.

Furthermore, there were dozens of known historians who lived and wrote during the time of the crucifixion of Jesus, the best known of which were Flavius Josephus, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, and Ptolemy, and none of them wrote of a resurrection. And surely they would have heard about it and wrote about it if such a miraculous event had actually taken place.

It was only much later, possibly in 70 CE but probably in 73 CE, forty-three years after Jesus died, that any other Christian writer besides Paul mentioned anything about a resurrection.

However, by that time many things had changed, and the situation was quite different. In 70 CE, about forty years after Jesus died and about six years after Paul died, the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, the center of Judaism, and the city of Jerusalem itself was destroyed by the Roman Army.

That was a crushing response to the Jewish uprising incited by the rabble-rousing head of the Jewish Sanhedrin, Shammai, who was very antagonistic toward Romans. Shammai had ignored the advice of his predecessor, the great pacifist Jewish leader Hillel the Elder, who had developed the Talmudic tradition and taught the Golden Rule before Jesus did. And, because Shammai and his Jewish followers antagonized the Romans, and because the Pauline Christians had also caused a great deal of antagonism toward both Rabbinical Jews and Romans, the Romans decided to put down all the Jewish and Christian upstarts and reacted violently with a very destructive iron fist.

All that is crucial, because following that, in about 73 CE, amidst all this turmoil and when both Jews and Christians were held in suspicion by the Romans, an unidentified author wrote the first of the gospels which eventually made it into the official Christian canon (Bible), and became known as the Gospel of Mark.

That first gospel (Mark) mentions that after his death Jesus had "risen." But we should keep in mind that by 73 CE, forty-three years after the death of Jesus, a legend had grown up by word of mouth about Jesus' death and resurrection. The legend was about the body of Jesus being put in a tomb, or a visitation by some women, and then of the body being missing and a "young man" telling the women that the body of Jesus was not there but had risen, leading to the assumption and claim that the actual body of Jesus had been physically resurrected.

However, the book of James doesn't even mention any resurrection, which is telling. Of course, it should be mentioned that the dating of the book of James is the most disputed, with estimates ranging from the late '50s to the '80s in the first century. And James not only dismisses the resurrection story, he does not try to idolize Jesus even though he recognizes him as "the Lord." James understood that Jesus served the Lord of Lords, Jehovah or Yahweh, which is why there was a well known conflict between James and Paul (as is discussed in the article About Christianity.)

Then, in about 83 CE, the Gospel of Matthew was written, using the text of Mark as a foundation and adding to Mark's account of the resurrection. The book of Matthew added some elements to the story that the author had gathered during the decade after the book of Mark was written, and one of the elements was added because there was a serious conflict between the Christian movements and the Jewish authorities.

You see, the chief priests and Pharisees had accused the Christian disciples of stealing Jesus' body from the tomb in order to falsely claim that he had risen from the dead. In response, the book of Matthew, like the book of Mark, tried to counter the Jewish argument by submitting the story of Jesus' bodily resurrection as "gospel truth."

According to the gospel of Matthew, after the dead body of Jesus was brought down from the cross, Joseph prepared the body for burial. He cleaned it and wrapped it according to Jewish custom, and then placed it in a tomb cut out of a rock hillside, and rolled a huge rock to close the entrance.

However, according to Matthew it was not until the next day that the chief priests and Parisees went to Pilate and said that since Jesus had claimed that “after three days I will rise,” they should put a guard in front of the tomb until the third day to ensure that none of the followers of Jesus would remove his body and then claim he had “risen” and was bodily “resurrected.” So the body of Jesus could have been removed from the tomb on the first night it was in tomb.

Even so, as the years passed after Jesus died, the stories about him kept taking on a new twist. Luke 9:22 (written in the late '80s or '90s) says that Jesus said he would "be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised after three days [or rise again in three days]." And Mark says that the "temple" will be destroyed then be "built again without hands."

The reference to the temple built without hands is to the book of Isaiah, and that was true then and is true now. However, while the Christian scribes claimed Jesus fulfilled a prophecy of being raised from the dead in three days, that would not have fulfilled any prophecy. Again, the only thing remotely similar is in Hosea 6:2, which states: "After two days will he revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight."

Yet the book of Matthew enhanced and exaggerated the story. Rather than a "young man" being in the opened tomb to tell the women Jesus was not there, Matthew says there was an earthquake and an angel came out of heaven and rolled away the stone that had closed the tomb. The angel then told the women who visited the tomb that Jesus was not there but had risen from the dead, as he said he would. And even though the women were afraid of the angel they were filled with joy.

The book of Matthew also contains the first written description of Jesus in his original physical body talking to and being touched by believers after he died. However, we should keep in mind that the book of Matthew contains other exaggerations as well, and even erroneous references or attributions to Jewish scriptures. (For example, Matthew claims that Jesus was born of a virgin according to the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 about the child Immanuel. But, as is explained in the article about The Virgin Birth Story, that is simply not true. The actual child named Immanuel was not born of a virgin, and the Immanuel mentioned in Isaiah lived and died long before Jesus was even born.)

Now, in about 90 CE, fifty years after Jesus died, the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts were written. The resurrection or physical life-after-death story had been enhanced even more by that time, and Jesus is said to have talked to many people, appeared to disciples and others and even had a meal with some, and that was obviously written to prove Jesus had actually been bodily resurrected and his physical body was still real and corporeal. And then, so the story goes, Jesus took disciples to Bethany, blessed them, and then ascended into heaven magically.

It should be obvious that all such claims are myths — similar to myths about Moses and other historical Jewish leaders, and similar to myths about the founders or builders of almost all other religions in the world. And all myths were created for basically the same reason: to establish a person as having divine supernatural stature, which is common with mythology.

Anyway, in about 90 CE (or perhaps even later) the Gospel of John was written. Still more details to the resurrection story were added. The story about the two men became a story about two angels. The story changed to say that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene after the empty tomb was discovered. Jesus miraculously catches fish, and Peter is elevated to a position of authority replacing James as head of the church.

Now of course, the story about Jesus having been touched and eaten meals was added to be considered proof that Jesus was not merely a ghost, but was in a resurrected physical body. However, if the legend has any basis in fact, and it was true that Jesus did manage to appear to loved ones after his death, it was as a ghost.

Ironically, this is consistent with references in the epistles and gospels to the spiritual resurrection of Jesus, and these references were probably influenced by Gnostic Christian writers, whose books were not included in official Christian canon or Bible. The Gnostic Christians did not believe in the idea of a physical resurrection of the material body, but of the spirit-soul and the holy ghost.

For example, in reporting events following the death of Jesus, Luke 24:31 states that Jesus disappeared from sight suddenly. Luke 24:37 states that the disciples thought that Jesus was a ghost. John 20:17 states that Jesus told Mary Magdalene not to hold on to him because he had not yet "returned to God" or been spiritually transcended. And John 20:19-26 apparently states that Jesus walked through a wall or a closed door.

Since Jesus was obviously a very advanced soul, it is certainly possible that we was able to appear as a ghost to his disciples and loved ones. Even though it is not common knowledge, even many normal departed ones have managed to appear as a ghost to their loved ones. Obviously most of those who have witnessed ghosts don’t talk about it for fear of being labeled as odd or delusional, or dismissed as merely dreaming it. But the case of Jesus is unique, because in most cases a ghost can appear only to one person at a time, and usually it is not as a clearly visible entity. Therefore, if the stories of Jesus visiting several loved ones and followers after his death as a ghost are true, Jesus was indeed a very special, advanced soul.

It is possible, however, that when Jesus was crucified he did not die but rather entered the state of Nirvikalp Samadhi, consciousness beyond the physical or material body and world, then after three days became conscious of his body and traveled secretly in disguise, visited loved ones, and then left his body and his spirit-soul ascended to heaven. The great Indian spiritual master Meher Baba believed that, and his belief was endorsed by other masters like Swami Abhedananda, Shankaracharya, and Satya Sai Baba. Moreover, modern research about the tomb of Jesus by Nicholas Notovitch, Fida Hasnain, Aziz Kashmiri, James Deardoff, Mantoshe Devji also approve this theory.

However, the bodily, physical resurrection story is no doubt a myth, just like the virgin birth myth and the myth about the reason for Jesus’ sacrifice.

We know for certain that Paul’s claim that Jesus appeared to a crowd of more than 500 people after he died is false. A dead man being seen by and talking to such a large group of people would be such a miraculous event that it would have become widely known. It would have been recorded by other Christian authors, and also by non-Christian Jewish and Greek historians of the time. There were, after all, many Greek and Jewish historians around at the time. And yet none mentioned it, or any resurrection.

In the final analysis, the proof is in the fact that IF the physical body of Jesus was actually resurrected, he would have been an immortal corporeal being here on earth. And, if that were the case, why did he go away? Why did he not stay as a permanent, immortal world teacher? And why would the so-called "second coming" be necessary?

These are valid questions, and all these facts illustrate how important modern scholarship and education is. For example, understanding that Paul's letters and epistles were the first Christian texts illustrates that there were Christian communities spread throughout the Roman Empire before there were written gospels. Furthermore, dating the canonical gospels and understanding that they were written after Paul’s letters makes it clear that as written documents the gospels were not the source of early Christianity. The written gospels were the result of it, long after the death of Jesus.

In fact, dating the Christian texts enables us to understand that the stories of Jesus had been told by word of mouth for 30 years before the first canonical gospel was produced, and 20 years after Paul’s first letter was distributed.

Furthermore, reading the canonical gospels in chronological order beginning with Mark enables us to see that Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source, not only adding to Mark but modifying Mark. And seeing John as a later gospel helps us to see how different the Gospel of John is.

Modern Discovery of The Tomb of Jesus

Now, in addition to all that, there is other evidence that has only been discovered in modern times. Unfortunately, Christian investment in the bodily resurrection myth is so strong that in 1980 when archaeologists reported that the family tomb of Jesus had been discovered in the hills behind Jerusalem, it caused a huge backlash among fundamentalist Christians. When the Discovery Channel aired a TV documentary in 2012 called The Lost Tomb of Jesus, it was virtually ignored and even panned by some academics and fundamentalist Christians.

That documentary, made by Hollywood director James Cameron and Canadian investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici, was panned because it reexamines the archeological discovery of a crypt containing what were said to be the bones of Joseph, Mary, Jesus, the son of Joseph, and Mariamne (probably Mary Magdalene). But, as the Times magazine has reported, many archeologists and Biblical scholars were still intrigued, so a leading New Testament expert from Princeton Theological Seminary, Professor James Charlesworth, organize a conference in Jerusalem in March 1013 with the participation of more than 50 archaeologists, statisticians and experts in DNA, ceramics and ancient languages, to provide and consider evidence as to whether or not the crypt of Jesus and his family had actually been found.

After three days of debate, the experts remained divided and opinions of the experts ranged from "no way" to "very possible." Professor Charlesworth told the Time magazine: "I have reservations, but I can't dismiss the possibility that this tomb was related to the Jesus clan." Charlesworth said, "we can tell that this was the tomb of a Jewish family from the time of Jesus. And we know that the names on the ossuaries are expressed the correct way as 'Jesus, son of Joseph.'" Furthermore the widow of the chief archeologist of the 1980 excavation told the conference that: "My husband believed that this was Jesus's tomb, but because of his experiences as a Holocaust survivor, he was worried about a backlash of anti-Semitism and he didn't think he could say this."

Statistical analysis seems to indicate that even though the names of Joseph, Mary and even Jesus (or Yeshuah) were not uncommon during the Second Temple period, the chances of them all being found in the same crypt, belonging to the same family, were rare. And the conference attendees voted unanimously that the tomb, which was buried under the garden of an apartment building, should be reopened and examined more carefully. Jacobovici, who was instrumental in making the documentary, told Time magazine: "I feel vindicated. It's moved from 'it can't be the Jesus' family tomb' to 'it could be.' "

Charlesworth, a Methodist minister, believes that the faith of some believers will be buoyed by historical proof that the Christ Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, did exist. "I don't think it will undermine belief in the resurrection, only that Jesus rose as a spiritual body, not in the flesh."

Charelesworth added: "Christianity is a strong religion, based on faith and experience, and I don't think that any discovery by archaeologists will change that."

That is probably true. Most Christians will eventually view the idea that the real tomb of Jesus has been found to be a positive advance and evolution of the Christian belief system.

Anyway, the overall point is that it is time to understand and acknowledge that Yeshuah or Jesus of Nazareth was a son of man, the son of Joseph and Mary, an enlightened spiritual teacher, a sacrificial lamb of God, and the Avatar for the passing age.But he was not magically born of a "virgin," nor did he undergo a bodily resurrection. His resurrection was of the spirit-soul, just as ours can or will be.

(By the way, many educated, reasonable, fair and progressive Christian scholars have been and are writing about these kinds of issues, and you can read their views in many books and web sites, like Religious Tolerance.)

The seed of this message was implanted in the heart and mind of the author in in 1971 when he was 30 years old. After much trial and error, after much self-doubt, and after much meditation and study, he and developed and started delivering it in 1984. It was finally self-published under the pen name of Joseph Adamson in early 2002 in books and summarized at Internet sites that not longer exist (realprophecyunveiled.netfirms.com and then reformationcomingsoon.bravehost.com). Then in 2010, fearing all his work had been in vain, the author closed his site, but the articles were preserved here by this Initiative. Even though the author' initially wrote under a pen name, he is know by many names and titles by different religions as is explained in Prophecies Re: He Who Fulfills Them, and he also goes by the name of "J.J. Jeffers," the name he chose as a singer-songwriter. However, he knows he and his name don't matter. He is but a servant-messenger of God and like a blade of grass that withers and dies, while the message, as imperfect as it is, is an important and lasting testament and interceding judgment.